MLB.com's Jane Lee blogs about the Oakland A's

ARLINGTON — Not playing is not an option right now for A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson, who refused to exit Friday’s 6-2 victory in Texas despite suffering what appeared to be an alarming left knee injury. Donaldson was examined after the game and deemed his prognosis “OK,” saying, “We’ll play it by ear tomorrow.”

“It’s just going to be how I feel,” he continued. “Obviously they’re going to look at it. But how I felt at the end of the game, it didn’t get any worse, which was good. So hopefully I’ll be in there tomorrow.”

The All-Star third baseman, who has already played banged-up for much of the second half with a left hamstring issue, injured the knee on an attempt at a foul-ball grounder in the third and looked to be in serious pain, bringing out manager Bob Melvin and the club’s head trainer, Nick Paparesta, while leaving his teammates greatly concerned.

Donaldson opted to stay in the game — “I was just like, ‘Let’s go,’ he said — and singled in his next at-bat, scoring a run in the same inning despite hobbling around the bases, helping the A’s inch even closer to their third consecutive playoff berth.

“It wasn’t fun,” Donaldson admitted. “That’s just with the hamstring thing, too. The hardest part is trying to push off that leg. My left leg wasn’t really working.”

“He wasn’t going to push it as far as running,” said Melvin, “but he obviously means a lot to us and he stayed in the game.”

Added closer Sean Doolittle: “It was very scary, but the kind of guy that Donaldson is, he’s tough as nails, he’s an absolute gamer. His legs are gonna have to be off his body for him not to stay in the game. We all breathe a huge sigh of relief when he got up, and then next at-bat got a knock, scored a run. That’s the kind of player that he is.”

Donaldson has played in a team-high 156 games, and it’s unlikely he sits out the next.

“I want to be out there for my team,” he said. “This is the most important time of the year and if I can move I’m going to try to be out there.”

“I didn’t even think he’d come back and do what he did,” said Josh Reddick. “It just shows how tough he really is and shows how important these games really are. To stay in was really big and to even come up with a big base hit like he did and get that rally going. Hopefully he’s all right because without him it’s going to be a tough task.”

Brandon Moss has been playing through a right hip injury for much of the year and is prepared to undergo surgery on it as soon as the A’s season concludes.

Moss has been dealing with the injury since mid-May, but only recently has it really become a concerning issue, which is why he opted to go for an MRI on Monday that revealed torn cartilage. He was unavailable Wednesday after receiving a cortisone shot but returned to the lineup for Thursday’s four-game series opener in Texas, playing in left field.

“As far as the pain, there really isn’t any right now,” said Moss. “Today it feels really good.”

But a cortisone shot can only mask an injury for so long, and Moss understands offseason surgery isn’t even up for debate at this point. It’s simply a matter of deciding what kind is best, be it microfracture surgery, which would sideline him through the majority of Spring Training, or a more minor clean-up procedure.

“Best-case scenario would be to go in there and just clean out what’s in there,” he said. “Obviously there are things floating around in there.

“Something has to be done. Can’t just leave it alone. Leaving it alone isn’t going to do it any good.”

Moss has gradually lost mobility and strength in the hip, but he does not want to use that as an excuse for his second-half struggles at the plate. He entered the day batting .179 with four home runs and 15 RBIs in 54 games since the All-Star break, after batting .268 with 21 homers and 66 RBIs in the 89 games before it.

“When you have something going on, your body finds a way to compensate for it, so mechanical things change and such, but as far as how I felt at the plate, I didn’t feel any different,” he said. “There may have been some differences, but I didn’t feel that way. I felt like I was swinging at bad pitches. That’s all there was to it.

Moss later added what manager Bob Melvin echoed: “I have a hard time pinning all of my struggles on that. It progressively got worse through the season, but I was playing with it early in the season, too. It hurt, it bothered me, but until recently, I didn’t think it was nearly as bad as it was.”

KANSAS CITY — The A’s will push through the rest of August without shortstop Jed Lowrie, who is expected to go on the disabled list Thursday with a hairline fracture in his right index finger.

Lowrie has been playing through the injury for 10 days, but it was adversely affecting his performance to the point where he realized he couldn’t keep doing it through the rest of the season. Just Wednesday, he lobbed a throw over to first base on an Omar Infante grounder that resulted in an infield hit.

“He’s a fast runner, but I think that’s a play that I make 10 times out of 10,” Lowrie said Thursday morning. “There was no way that I could continue to put the same velocity on throws because the finger just wouldn’t allow it.

“I think the realization last night was it’s not going to get any better unless I take time off.”

Manager Bob Melvin agrees, but that still leaves him with a thin middle infield that’s already missing Nick Punto, who is expected to be out at least another week or two with a right hamstring strain.

The A’s are expected to call on Andy Parrino from Triple-A Sacramento when Lowrie officially hits the DL. Parrino can not only supplement Eric Sogard at shortstop but also play the outfield. Alberto Callaspo will continue to see the most time at second base.

Melvin hopes to have Lowrie back on board in September. That’s at least a month — likely longer, given the first-place A’s postseason chances — of a healthy, proven shortstop versus six weeks of one that could prove to be a liability.

Lowrie was mostly hampered by the fracture when throwing but also at the plate, too, since he was trying to avoid placing the finger on the bat at all. He was 2-for-15 in five games he played with the injury.

“We could get away with it for a week, but if I’m going through the rest of the season like this and into the playoffs with a broken finger, it’s going to catch up with us as a team,” said Lowrie. “Especially what we’re doing this year, that’s why I chose to try to play with it, because of where we are and what this team has done so far and what we’re capable of doing. But, in the same breath, I think it’s the right choice and once that focuses on the ultimate goal. So while, yes, it’s not what I wanted to do, I think it’s ultimately the best thing.”

Lowrie, a free agent after this season, is batting .238 with five homers and 28 doubles in 407 at-bats, after finishing with a .290 clip in 2013 – the first big league season in which he avoided the DL.

ST. PETERSBURG — The A’s are done playing musical chairs in the ninth inning.

Having toyed, sometimes unsuccessfully, with a closer-by-committee approach following Jim Johnson’s demotion from the role just 11 days into the season, the A’s appear ready to anoint Sean Doolittle as their new guy.

Manager Bob Melvin didn’t say so directly after Doolittle locked down the save in Tuesday’s 3-0 shutout in Tampa, but he sure suggested it, relaying as close to an official announcement as he has all year.

“The way things are setting up,” Melvin said, “there’s a good chance he will be in the closing role.”

To which Doolittle responded, “It’s pretty cool, I guess.”

“He’s done a good job of communicating with us as far as what our roles are all season long, so it’s not exactly a surprise when the phone rings,” the lefty continued. “We know what’s going on. I’ve said to him a number of times, whenever you need me to pitch, I’ll pitch. Whether you need me for two outs in the sixth or in the ninth, I’m ready to go.”

Doolittle’s promotion comes just four weeks after the A’s rewarded him with a five-year deal on the premise that, one day, he would be their closer. No one expected it to happen this soon, though, given the club’s decision to reel in Johnson via trade in the offseason and pay him $10 million in arbitration salary.

Johnson’s role is anything but defined at the moment. He’s allowed seven runs, all earned, over his last six outings following a 10 1/3-inning scoreless streak and has a 7.00 ERA in 19 appearances, compared to Doolittle’s 3.27 mark in 21 outings.

Doolittle issued his first walk since Aug. 31, 2013 with two outs in the ninth inning Tuesday. His strikeout total, meanwhile, stands at 30 over 22 innings — including 19 against right-handers.

Lefty closers form an exclusive class, but Doolittle has always felt “like I’ve been able to get righties out just as well as lefties. That’s something I take a lot of pride in, being able to get guys out on both sides of the plate.”

The A’s are now showing confidence in his ability to do it in the ninth inning.

“I’ve gotten to do it very sporadically over the last couple of years and a little bit this year, and it is a little bit different out there when you’re trying to nail down the last three outs of the game in a tight ball game,” he said. “But the more I’ve done it, the more and more I’ve been able to control that adrenaline and use it to my advantage and feed off it, and I’m starting to feel more comfortable in that spot.”

The A’s have acquired Kyle Blanks from the Padres in exchange for Minor League outfielder Jake Goebbert and a player to be named later.

Blanks, a right handed-hitting first baseman/outfielder, will join the A’s in Cleveland on Friday and take the roster spot of Daric Barton, who has been designated for assignment.

With Barton out of the mix, after hitting just .158 in 30 games, Blanks will presumably form a platoon with Brandon Moss at first base.

The A’s have 10 days to trade, release or, like has happened multiple times before with him, pass Barton through waivers. He can decline a Minor League assignment but has opted to remain with the organization before.

The 6-foot-6 Blanks was 2-for-10 with the Padres. He was promoted from Triple-A in early May after hitting nine homers but optioned again this week to make room for Carlos Quentin.

Blanks, 27, was a 42nd-round pick in 2004 out of Yavapai College in Arizona. But he wasn’t exactly a sleeper, as this was during the old Draft-and-follow days, which allowed a team to hold the exclusive rights to a player up until one week before the Draft the following year.

He made his big league debut at the age of 22, against the A’s on June 19, 2009. He got his first hit the following day. Blanks was a first baseman that was asked to play the outfield by the organization, and took to it far better than many thought.

In July 2009, a swarm of bees in left field at Petco Park – near where Blanks was playing – caused a 53-minute delay against the Astros. A month later, Blanks delighted the home crowd by chugging around the bases for an inside the park home run against the Cubs.

Heck, Blanks, not even with a year of service time, even had his own Bobble Head night at Petco Park in 2010.

But Blanks couldn’t kick the injury bug with the Padres.

He had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow in 2010. He later had season-ending surgery on his left shoulder in April of 2012. He also had issues with a strained arch in his right foot and, last season, left Achilles tendinitis.

The most at-bats he had in the big leagues in a single season was in 2013, when he hit .243 with eight home runs and 35 RBIs in 308 plate appearances.

Goebbert, meanwhile, was hitting .257 with six homers and 25 RBIs in 31 games for Triple-A Sacramento.

Parker succumbed to Tommy John surgery in March, and Griffin could be staring down the same fate, though the A’s won’t know for certain the extent of his procedure until it’s completed, manager Bob Melvin said Tuesday.

Dr. Thomas Mehlhoff, who performed Tommy John surgery on A’s reliever Fernando Rodriguez last March, will orchestrate Griffin’s surgery, which comes seven months after the righty first felt discomfort in his elbow.

The injury forced Griffin off the A’s postseason roster, and he was shut down in mid-March following a handful of Spring Training outings with what was described as flexor tendinitis. He attempted to start a throwing program just last week but immediately experienced a familiar ache, leading to Tuesday’s visit with Mehlhoff.

“We were certainly hoping this wasn’t going to be the case,” said Melvin. “Losing two guys like that for an entire season is a difficult blow. Losing one’s a blow, two’s tough. You move on, but you have sympathy for the two guys that are having to go through that because they’ve meant so much to this team over the last couple of years.”

Melvin is prepared to forge on with a Griffin-less rotation that entered the day with an American League-best 2.89 ERA. The A’s have starting depth in Triple-A arms Josh Lindblom and Arnold Leon — one of which will be needed during a scheduled doubleheader against the Mariners on May 7 — but not much beyond that. Lefty Drew Pomeranz, currently stationed in the bullpen, isn’t stretched out enough to start.

Leon has fared better in the early going of the season, pitching to a 3.75 ERA through five starts for Sacramento. Lindblom, who gave the A’s 4 2/3 innings in a spot start April 2, has allowed 19 earned runs in 23 2/3 innings spanning four starts for a 7.23 ERA in Triple-A.

Melvin spoke with Griffin briefly on Monday and said the pitcher, who is 21-11 with a 3.60 ERA in 47 starts over two seasons for the club, was “in good spirits.”

“He’s always pretty happy, go-lucky,” he said. “I think the fact that he’s having it done this early gives him the light at the end of the tunnel to pitch next season. He’s looking at it very positively.”

ARLINGTON — Jim Johnson may be nearing a return to the closer’s role he lost less than two weeks into the season.

The right-handed veteran allowed at least two runs in three of his first five appearances while absorbing two losses and a blown save, after collecting 101 saves over the previous two years. He’s since gained two wins while pitching in innings not named the ninth and hasn’t allowed a run over his last six outings.

Opponents are hitting just .179 against Johnson over that stretch, numbers that may very well suggest he’s back to old form. His sinker sure looks like it is.

In the meantime, the A’s have been utilizing a closer-by-committee approach and playing to match-ups, with Sean Doolittle and Luke Gregerson mostly splitting ninth-inning duties. But Johnson’s continued success could change that.

“It has certainly elevated the potential for him to close,” manager Bob Melvin said Monday. “He’s pitching really well.”

Melvin had Johnson warming up in a save situation in Houston on Friday, but his services weren’t needed after the A’s scored seven runs in the ninth inning.

The All-Star righty entered Monday riding a streak of 20 consecutive saves against American League West competition dating back to Aug. 6, 2012. He has a 0.64 ERA over that 27-game span.

HOUSTON — Jed Lowrie remains befuddled by his place in what he believes to be “an internal issue that they have over there” in Houston’s organization.

Moreover, this strange fallout with the Astros should be no more, he believes, particularly since the A’s don’t plan to retaliate in any way for the dramatics that unfolded in the seventh inning Thursday, when Houston’s Paul Clemens drilled Lowrie in the backside with a pitch — after unsuccessfully attempting to do so twice last week.

Clemens denies the act was intentional, even though the series of events that led to it suggest it was clearly premeditated. That he was ejected immediately supports this notion.

Astros manager Bo Porter was not pleased with Lowrie bunting with a 7-1 lead in the first inning a week ago, even though a shift was activated. Porter later charged the field and yelled at Lowrie, shortly after Clemens nearly hit him with a pitch.

Even though he missed, Lowrie believed the antics to be over. Thursday, they were brought to life again, though Porter repeated Friday what he said last week: “The game takes care of itself.” To which Lowrie responded, “What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know what else to say, because, clearly, he’s just stonewalling,” Lowrie continued. “At the end of the day, it seems like an internal issue that they have over there. I don’t know if it’s frustration or self-realization, but it seems like such an internal problem, honestly.”

That’s why Lowrie shrugged his shoulders after being hit Thursday and calmly trotted down to first base. Had he motioned toward Clemens or sparked an argument, there’s no question his teammates would’ve charged the field. Instead, they went about their business.

The A’s are 4-0 against the Astros this season, outscoring them, 29-8.

“You don’t want to give them any extra fuel,” said Josh Donaldson, who homered behind Lowrie. “It really depends on what Jed wants to do. If he wants to play it cool and take his base, then we’re fine. But if they start talking back and forth with each other, it could’ve been different. But I think Jed handled it the way he wanted to handle it, and it was squashed.”

“I think it was pretty obvious what was going on, and no need to even dignify it,” added manager Bob Melvin, who has not spoken to Porter about the incident. “Just move on and hope it just goes away.

“Personally, I’d just like to move past it. It’s been going on too long for me, anyway. I thought we had moved past it when we were at home.”

So did Lowrie, who, believes the actions ultimately fall on Porter. The Astros manager, asked Friday if he ordered Clemens to hit Oakland’s shortstop, didn’t deny it, saying, “The game takes care of itself. I don’t think any of us would want to sit here and talk about conversations that take place in the dugout or in the clubhouse. It’s almost like, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

Said Lowrie: “When his response is, ‘The game takes care of itself’ and ‘George Springer got hit, so I don’t see a problem with it,’ and then Paul Clemens says, ‘I wasn’t trying to hit him,’ that he cut a fastball and clearly it was a two-seamer coming back into me, they’re not on the same page. It’s pretty contradicting. It seems like someone should own up for their actions.

“The manager, with his comments, essentially said he didn’t see a problem with them throwing at me, and Clemens said he didn’t throw at me because he doesn’t want to get suspended. That’s the way I read it. Like I said last night, every way you look at it, it’s stupid, it’s embarrassing.”

So what’s next?

“Honestly, I’m so confused by the situation, I don’t even know where it stands,” said Lowrie. “I don’t know who’s keeping score in the situation. I’ve been confused from the beginning, and it’s become more convoluted.”

Six days after unsuccessfully attempting to hit A’s shortstop Jed Lowrie on two occasions, Clemens plunked Lowrie in the backside with a pitch in the seventh inning of Oakland’s 10-1 win in Houston on Thursday and was immediately ejected by home-plate umpire Toby Basner.

That he even tried again is “flat-out embarrassing,” said Lowrie, whose payback came in the form of a run on Josh Donaldson’s ensuing two-run homer.

“There’s no other way to say it. Every perspective, every angle you look at it, it’s embarrassing. That kind of conduct should be condemned.”

The antics stem from Houston manager Bo Porter’s displeasure with Lowrie’s decision to bunt in the first inning with his team already leading, 7-0, on Friday. Except Porter had turned on the defensive shift, so Lowrie saw no other choice.

Later in the game, Clemens threw in between Lowrie’s legs, and Porter was seen yelling at the infielder. No matter, Lowrie believed the drama to be over.

“I still don’t understand why it was made into a big deal to begin with,” Lowrie said. “He throws at me twice in Oakland, and then throws at me again today. For a number of reasons it’s embarrassing. I had him in an at-bat before, I hit a double off him, and then he throws at me the first pitch. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“It hit me in the back leg. I’d be curious what his answer was, or what Bo’s answer was. It’s pretty obvious that he was throwing at me on purpose for the third time.”

Porter’s response was identical to the one he fed reporters last week, saying, “The game of baseball takes care of itself.”

Houston’s manager added, “George Springer got hit tonight, too. It’s part of the game. … I don’t see it as frustrating. I don’t see it as something to get past. What are we getting past?”

“There was no carryover on my end,” insisted Clemens. “What happened in Oakland was squashed in Oakland. Bad pitch there and it just so happened I cut a fastball. Guy’s been hot, swinging a good bat. I wanted to let him know I’m not afraid to come inside.”

For Lowrie, he wants it to be known these actions are not acceptable. For that reason, he believes a suspension from Major League Baseball is “worth looking into.” He also noted, “The buck stops with [Porter]. He’s the one that’s responsible for his players’ conduct.”

“I thought it ended in Oakland. I said this then,” he said. “If they want to continue to hold a grudge, that’s up to them. Clearly they’ve taken it very personally.”

HOUSTON — A’s right-hander A.J. Griffin, sidelined by a flexor strain for nearly six weeks, will get a second opinion on his pitching elbow in Houston next week.

The A’s hoped rest would be the cure for Griffin’s ongoing discomfort, felt since the later stages of last season, but it was still there when he attempted to begin a throwing program this week.

“He’s throwing a little bit and not feeling much better,” manager Bob Melvin said Thursday in Houston.

Now there’s concern that the issue, once believed to simply be a bout of tendinitis, could lead to surgery.

Griffin will meet with the Houston-based Dr. Thomas Mehlhoff on Tuesday to decide if that’s necessary. Mehlhoff performed Tommy John surgery on A’s reliever Fernando Rodriguez on March 27, 2013, and Rodriguez is nearing the end of what’s been a very successful rehab process.

Griffin, 26, was 14-10 with a 3.83 ERA in 32 starts in his first full season in the Majors last year, compiling a team-best 200 innings. But he was left off the American League Division Series roster because of elbow issues, which never went away. They only worsened with each start in Spring Training, and the A’s opted to send him for tests with Dr. Doug Freedberg, who suggested the pitcher undergo platelet-rich plasma therapy.

Griffin, originally penciled in as the club’s No. 4 starter entering spring, did just that and was initially expected to return to the rotation in late May or early June — an encouraging prognosis for a team that knew it would already be without righty Jarrod Parker, who succumbed to his second Tommy John surgery, for the entire season.

Suddenly Griffin could be facing the same fate, though the A’s remain equipped with an enviable rotation that entered the day with an AL-best 2.80 ERA.

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